


love burns just as bright

by MarbledOpalescence



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Dreams, F/F, Pining, Soulmates, Spoilers for Season 4, of a sort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22046734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarbledOpalescence/pseuds/MarbledOpalescence
Summary: Messing with the elder gods hurts like a bitch, Gertrude realizes. She is frozen in place and can’t move as the power she thought to control courses through her. She thinks that it’s going to destroy her as retribution for her hubris, feels her lungs burning inside her, until all at once it stops.~~Gertrude dreams of a young woman with long auburn hair and sad eyes.
Relationships: Agnes Montague/Gertrude Robinson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	love burns just as bright

**Author's Note:**

> Written as part of [the tma femslash week on tumblr](tmafemslashweek.tumblr.com)! Inspired by the day 2 prompt dreams.

Messing with the elder gods hurts like a bitch, Gertrude realizes. She is frozen in place and can’t move as the power she thought to control courses through her. She thinks that it’s going to destroy her as retribution for her hubris, feels her lungs burning inside her, until all at once it stops. Her heart feels oddly heavy and her body _aches_ , but she manages to drag herself out of that place. She makes it home, barely, and collapses into her bed still fully clothed. 

Her sleep is restless and fitful, but during what sleep she can get, Gertrude _dreams_. They are foggy and have forgotten when she wakes, but she thinks that there was a girl. A young woman with long auburn hair and sad eyes… She shakes that thought off and tiredly pulls herself out of bed, every muscle in her body stiff and sore. Whatever had happened the previous day, she was sure it hadn’t worked the way she had intended and there was still that mad fire cult to deal with somehow.

Reginald asks Gertrude if she’s alright when she keeps rubbing her chest later, but she just shakes him off. She’ll deal with it later.

* * *

With each new statement that Gertrude reads, each new thread she uncovers, she grows both more worried and more determined to find out what is actually going on. The ache fades, eventually, and she hardly ever notices the weight in her chest. (She tells herself she doesn’t notice. Gertrude has gotten very good at realizing when someone is lying to her, except when it’s to herself)

She dreams again, sometimes, of a place filled with clouds of smoke and a girl with long auburn hair and sad eyes....

Her heart always feels heavier after these dreams. Some days she wakes up with a smell of smoke and a taste of ashes. 

(Gertrude tells herself it’s just from smoking before bed, and resolves to quit altogether. She doesn’t let herself think about how she hasn’t smoked at home in months.)

* * *

The dreams get stronger, but it isn’t until almost a year later that anything really changes. Gertrude falls asleep in the Archives for the third time that week after a long night of research, and finds herself in that place full of fog and smoke. She feels a pull on her hand and looks down to see a string tied around the third finger of her left hand. The string tugs again, so she follows the pull. The clouds of smoke rise in front of her, leaving her lungs aching and her eyes watering, but part as she passes through into a space that seems oddly clear of all but a light mist. Gertrude feels another tug on her hand and follows the string to see that it’s pulled taut and trailing off through the clouds on the other side of the clearing. As she watches, another person stumbles through the clouds, looking around curiously. Gertrude draws in a sharp breath as she recognizes the long curtain of auburn hair. The woman looks around sharply at the small sound and freezes when she sees Gertrude.

“It’s you!” she exclaims, staring at her in disbelief. “You’re here, you’re real! Can-” she pauses uncertainly, “Can you hear me?”  
“I can,” Gertrude says, “Do...do I know you?”

The woman laughs slightly.

“Not really, no. I just. I’ve _seen_ you here, I’ve seen you so many times, but you’ve never heard me, never...never said anything.” She pauses again, blushing. “Do you- Do you remember me?”

“No...” Gertrude says slowly and the woman’s face falls. Gertrude pauses and takes a breath, then continues. “No, I don’t remember who you are, but I’ve seen you before, seen this place before, in my dreams.”

She eyes the woman another moment before snapping an abrupt question.

“Are you real?”

The woman blinks, surprised.

“Yes? Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re in my dreams, this is a _dream_!” Gertrude says, gesturing around her wildly.

“Well, yes,” the woman says, “But you’re in my dreams too.”

Gertrude stops and stares at her and the woman blushes again. (She’s very pretty when she blushes, Gertrude notices. The woman is very pretty all of the time, but especially when she blushes. Gertrude notices she has freckled cheeks and wonders what it would be like to count them. She pushes that thought aside.)

“How long… how long has this been happening?” Gertrude asks. (She knows the answer, but needs to hear it from someone else too.)

“Um.” The woman pauses and bites her lower lip in consideration. “About a year, I think?”

“Ah.”

There’s an awkward pause while they both look at each other uncertainly. Gertrude doesn’t know what to say. (What is there to see when you meet the literal woman of your dreams? Her mind supplies, but she doesn’t listen.)

Suddenly Gertrude feels another tug, sharper than the one that had led her here. It feels attached behind her ribs and she gasps in pain and clutches her chest. The woman starts forward, her arms outstretched. It tugs again and leaves her breathless.

“Are you alright?” the woman asks urgently, then gasps. “You’re fading! No, you can’t go yet-”

Gertrude falls to her knees, and when she catches herself on the ground she can see what the woman is talking about: her hands are turning transparent.

“Please, before you go-” Gertrude looks up through the unruly hairs that escaped from her braid to meet the woman’s desperate, “Would you tell me your name?”

“...Gertrude,” she gasps out, “Gertrude Robinson.”

The woman drops to her knees in front of her and covers Gertrude’s hands in her own. Her hands are warm, Gertrude notes, warmer than anything else in this cold and empty place. They’re soft too, with long elegant fingers that slip between Gertrude’s in a way that feels all too natural

“Hello Gertrude,” she says, and smiles. “My name is Agnes.”

Gertrude wakes up.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! One note: I used the name Reginald at one point, which refers to Reginald Everleigh, the man Jonah Magnus possesses before James Wright and the head of the Magnus Institute that hired Gertrude.  
> 


End file.
